Such a nuanced issue.
"The great, vital, and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle… In this age, there can be no substitute for Christianity… That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants." - Congress 1854

The question is, how far the chasm between pulpit and politic, and politic from pulpit before one can span the other?

I think we've seen this before, and in fact over, and over, and over...
I for one, don't think 'Yes sir, may I have another..' is the answer.

Be saved, while you yet may... is.

Clare73 said:

To be reckoned/counted as righteous, the righteousness of Christ is imputed/reckoned (Ro 5:18-19, 1:7, 3:21, 4:5, Php 3:9) to the now sinless believer.

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Doesn't sound like too much of a difference really. Either way, as asked, is this imputation/reckoning of righteousness real personal righteousness actually given to us, so that we might now live more justly than before, or simply a change in status before the eyes of God?

CoreyD said:

What is undeniable is the fact that Jesus' sign matches the period from the early 1900s till now.

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Let's say that is true. Your reasoning is that therefore Jesus has been ruling as king. Is there any evidence at all that Jesus has been ruling as king since about 1914 besides war, famine, and pestilence? In the Bible there are lots of miracles when God and Jesus are present. Perhaps you also believe in a non-obvious God since I don't see any evidence that Jesus is ruling as king besides the war, famine, and pestilence. Also I don't know of any church that has announced that since 1914 Jesus has been ruling as king (as opposed to his presence before 1914). Surely churches would have realised it. Or I guess you're in the 2% that know that Jesus is now ruling somehow, in a very subtle way.

So Jesus gave 2 great commandments:

Matthew 22

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

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but then also
Luke 14

26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

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So self denial and self hatred.. but love your neighbors as yourself? How do you love others as yourself when you hate yourself?
I find loving others properly difficult because I have trouble loving myself. It causes me to resent others, including at times God Himself (for creating me) because I resent my own existence.

Wall Street Journal: Birthday letter to Epstein bore Trump’s signature, drawing of naked woman​

CNN — A collection of letters gifted to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003 included a note bearing Donald Trump’s name and an outline of a naked woman, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Thursday. The drawing, depicting a woman’s [upper torso] and a “Donald” signature in the place of [genitals], surrounded several lines of typewritten text, according to the newspaper, which reviewed the letter. It concluded with the line: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump in an interview with the Journal on Tuesday denied that he wrote the letter or drew the picture and threatened to sue the newspaper if it published the story. “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said, according to the Journal. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words". At press time, Trump was denying that he knew how to write.

OK, I made up that last sentence.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the letter bearing Trump’s name was included in a birthday album assembled by Ghislaine Maxwell, a close Epstein associate who was convicted of child sex trafficking in connection with Epstein. She collected the letters from Trump and dozens of others for Epstein’s 50th birthday, the Journal reported.

Brightfame52 said:

@fhansen



yes it does, no life, no movement, action, activity.

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That's just novel theory. We can't be raised apart from Him but we're still morally accountable beings, not inanimate objects or beasts-and, again, He's not into producing automatons- beggining in Eden. But when we turn, when we respond in faith to His drawing, He's very, very pleased-because we could do otherwise.

Not a good look...

Best case scenario: She was was fired because of her relation to someone he had beef with

Worst case scenario: She was fired because something is being covered up (at least that's the way the public will receive it)

Since neither of those scenarios are good, that's why I said "not a good look"

BCP1928 said:

He calls himself a "progressive" (makes me think of Dubya and his "compassionate conservatism.") But Newsome is neoLib and he's going to have to go down with that ship.

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...but here's the question, does the progressive left sabotage their own candidates by basically forcing them to adhere to a purity standard that they know doesn't gel with the rest of the country on some of the social issues?


Cenk from the Young Turks was talking about this rather recently (yes, I listen to content from both sides of the aisle).

Paraphrasing: "If you know things like paid family leave, universal healthcare, and stronger workers rights are popular with the majority, and you have a candidate who supports those things and has a somewhat decent rapport with a plurality of voters, why are you sticking your own guy on the hot seat and pressuring them into "saying a thing" that's unpopular with 80% of the voters?"


This is one area where (strictly strategically speaking) the republicans do better than the democrats.

The democrats have developed a somewhat toxic purity standard, where republicans will happily welcome someone into the fold even if they have the most trivial overlap.

I've heard it referred to as "Pitchforks to the left; Welcome mat to the right"


The republicans gladly welcomed in a Joe Rogan (an atheist Bernie Bro who's in favor of universal healthcare, gay marriage, drug legalization, and looser immigration laws) over the fact that he thinks comedy shouldn't be censored and that he agreed with some of them about the covid vaccine. That's really the only overlap he has with them, he got welcomed with open arms. Same deal with RFK, some overlap on the vaccine stuff and some sentiments about the "politicizing of science", but apart from that, he was lifelong democrat who was a pro-choice environmentalist (who was on Obama's short list to head the EPA)

Both of those guys got a "heroes welcome" from the GOP. (despite not really have that much in common)

Meanwhile, the democrats are running people out of town if they dare to deviate on even 1 or 2 issues.

lifepsyop said:

yea, it's an especially useless word when it is the very subject being debated

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Sometimes. But I'm not here to debate the science of evolution with people. I don't think this is the right place for that. I'm mostly here to stick up for my colleagues and myself, so hopefully people understand we're not evil scientist characters, always plotting and scheming to undermine faith in God or something.

lifepsyop said:

I think if you have a philosophical commitment to an evolutionary worldview, then it's pretty natural and not crazy at all to see evolution in everything.

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Probably so, but I've never met anyone like that.

lifepsyop said:

the first thing that comes to mind is plasticity. essentially, all creatures are "pre-programmed" with a certain potential for morphological change - rapid change, like within an individual's lifetime, change that is stimulated by pressures in their particular environment.

this kind of change leans much more towards the idea of bounded, cyclic variation - as opposed to some point along a potentially endless evolutionary trajectory towards a completely different organization of biological function.

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That's a really interesting concept. You should write it up and see how it goes from there.

BelieveItOarKnot said:

I consider my understandings to be orthodox generally, heterodox on our particular count.

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I am Orthodox in theology but early Calvery Chappel in practice.

ViaCrucis said:

Wait, it's Elon being against the bill that's going to kill the poor, gut the middle class, line the pockets of the ultra-wealthy, and drive us even deeper into debt that made you not like him?

I don't like Elon, I think he's a moron who cozies up to Nazis and repeats literal Nazi talking points. And his whole DOGE thing was nothing more than taking a baseball bat to a pottery exhibit. The fact that he doesn't like the BBB is maybe like the one thin I might actually agree with Elon on. But that's what makes you not like him?

We live in weird times.

-CryptoLutheran

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Seriously? People like you are nazi. I see many Democrat doing a Nazi salute.

Valletta said:

Thank you Eswatini! One of the Christian nations I have not visited.

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Praise be....the king.
Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is tucked between South Africa and Mozambique and has one of Africa’s last ruling monarchies. The kingdom is divided between those who praise its adherence to tradition and those who argue that the lavish lifestyle of King Mswati III stands in painful contrast to the poverty afflicting many of the country’s 1.2 million people.

FaithT said:

Ok that’s the third way I’ve heard of that spelling….St. Katharine, St. Katherine and St. Catherine.

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I don’t think the spelling matters, imo.

brinny said:

Why is Amazon becoming soooooooooo bad at delivering packages (lately)? UGH!!!

(i love venting threads)

hee hee

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Welcome back brinny!

NewLifeInChristJesus said:

You like quoting this verse...

9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. (1 Jn 3:9)​

It says that 1) the person who has been born of God "does not sin" because "His seed remains in Him", and 2) that "he cannot sin" because "he has been born of God".

From your point of view, what does 1 John 3:9 say is impossible for a person who has been born of God?

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Well, I quote a lot of verses more than those, but chose those here because you wish to reduce good fruit to nothing more than having faith. Anyway, it appears you already answered the question; there aren't too many options there.

Say it aint so said:

Yes, you man like these people:

Login to view embedded media
These are people who do this for a living. People who make this their lifelong work. And they are warning you.
But you keep on with your science denying political agenda "What's the Matter with Kansas"

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And yet so far we haven’t had any problems with being warned of any dangerous weather approaching. Probably because we have weather instruments scattered all over the country as well as all over the coasts and dangerous storms are typically massive in size. They don’t usually tend to sneak up on us without us knowing about them. And let’s just get right down to the very heart of the problem here. The only reason you have a problem with this is because you’re a democrat and are completely opposed to anything Trump does. I mean all we have to do is look at your content to see that. It’s nothing but anti Trump anti Trump anti Trump over and over and over and over. It’s ridiculous. When I look at your threads that’s literally all I see. 4 pages of nothing but smearing republicans and Trump. That’s literally the ONLY THREADS YOU’VE EVER POSTED HERE IN CF SINCE 2022. Prove me wrong.

If I had to guess, it'll resemble what most depositions do, which is a lot of "non-answers" and "I don't recall"s

As someone who's had to sit through a few (none for myself, but for my company when there have been some "conflicts"), it's not uncommon for a lawyer to remind the person on the hot seat (ad nauseum) "Now just keep in mind, if you don't remember :wink wink:, then say I don't remember...there's nothing that can prove or disprove whether your remember something"

Which is basically just sneaky lawyer speak for "nobody can technically prove whether or not you remember something, so by saying you don't remember, you're not giving them anything, and you're not subjecting yourself to perjury risks"

But obviously a lawyer can't officially say that directly.

XrxrX said:

SB is going to claim that Col 2:16 is Paul telling Jewish Christians to not let Gentile Christians criticize them FOR keeping feasts/days etc not vice versa. That's their 'switch a roo'.. except Paul was clearly railing against "Jud*i*z***s" you know who, that we're not allowed to mention. So yeah, they have a whole campaign of 'alternate reality' on this issue. They aren't Adventists, they're so called "Hebrew Roots", or they'll claim "Messianic Jews", but this, although a very OLD problem, as in the Apostles themselves had to battle it, it 'new again' in that it's one of the fastest rising cults now. It's extremely insidious, because like other groups that essentially deny that they preach "another you know what" in word, in Action the logical conclusions of what they preach can only reach one conclusion... Righteousness by Works. Many of them frequent "119 Ministries" which promulgates this theology. So, just some friendly info.

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I know brother. Thanks for the info. Been there done that.

I know St John Chrysostom comments on the Maccabean martyrs

E.C. said:

I think I was given an exception for basic training and my two deployments.

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I was too, and if I ever went to the field

essentialsaltes said:

1.4M of the nation’s poorest renters risk losing their homes with Trump’s proposed HUD time limit​

New research from New York University, obtained exclusively by The Associated Press and published Thursday, found that if families were cut off after two years, 1.4 million households could lose their vouchers and public housing subsidies — largely working families with children.

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He doesn't care. And his spineless senate and House are still afraid of him.

Pommer said:

The government shouldn't (help) fund people who might make the government look bad when the government does things that might make the government “look bad”?
Okay, then.

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If it was an even-handed approach that held everyone accountable in the public eye, then one could see it as a public good.

However, the criticism that PBS and NPR have a liberal bias isn't merely a fabrication, even independent watchdog organizations have concluded as much.


(AdFontes offers a similar assessment)


There are also watchdog groups that keep segment and guest tallies showing that liberal guests and perspectives on PBS outnumber conservative ones by a ratio 5:1. (not sure what that ratio looks like for NPR)


Now, I've heard the rebuttal before of "oh, well that's because the truth has a liberal bias", but that doesn't cut it with regards to media institutions that are getting public funding, because the temptation is often too strong to dangle that funding carrot as a way turn "our truth" into "THE truth" in the public eye.



That's where publicly funded news media creates a tricky circular incentive structure and feedback loop to try to navigate - ethically speaking.
(I believe I've heard that dynamic described before as: a zero sum game between "Watchdog vs. wallet")

Why does God allow mental illnesses to exist ?​

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@MassimoTheChristian
The same reason he allows prevention from illness to exist

Can we get specific ministries with specific data? Vague claims need numbers and teeth so we know which ministries to donate to and which to withdraw support from.